Around and about IX

Here’s what caught my eye, wandering and wondering, pottering and pondering in Hastings and St Leonards On Sea this week. By HOT’s Zelly Restorick.

Ponderings from The Pocket Park

Artwork by Inspire

The Pocket Park; a pause for thought, play and pottering place on Hughenden Road in Hastings.

The first thing that hit me is the vividly coloured artwork on the walls. It looks like the style of Inspire – the same team or individual who created the eye-catching mural on Queen’s Road, on the wall where you walk down to St Andrews Market. Stunning.

The Park was created by Better Braybrooke, to celebrate the millennium. You can go along on a Sunday morning if you want to meet other park people, but it’s open everyday for spontaneous visits. And on Saturday 13 September, there’s a Bird Day (1–3pm), where you can make bird tables and feeders for the park or your own garden.

Emma from Mosaic Malarky

I went to The Pocket Park with Emma Frankish Law from Mosaic Malarky – that’s Emma of the eye-drawing mosaic, The Tree Of Life, found on the back wall of Love Café – who was determined to finish grouting the mosaic mural she made with park visitors, before the winter sets in.

Winter warnings

Have you already heard people saying “winter’s on its way?”. I have. The first chill in the air and that’s it: summer’s over, now all we have to look forward to is a steady slide down the thermometer until next spring. “Except”, I say, endeavouring not to slip into a weather-paranoia induced depression, “we have rainy days in August and warm blue sky days in December”. The weather is as unpredictable as we humans are. “But the weather forecast said…”, I hear people sigh. Pah! Nature waves her bottom in the face of those who try and predict her. As do I.

Thought provoking words from the Dalai Lama:

Wall graffiti in Warsaw, Poland, Photo from Dreamstime

Spotted these words, magnet-ed to a friend’s fridge:

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered:

Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not really enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die and then dies, having never really lived.

The Great British Beach Clean

This is a campaign organized by the Marine Conservation Society, raising awareness about rubbish on the beaches and in the oceans, with the hope that we won’t just do it once a year, but will pick it up when we see it all year round.

I know, it’s not our rubbish; but it is the rubbish of one of our species – and the other critters we share the planet with don’t have opposing thumbs to clear it away themselves.

Rubbish on the beach

And to be sure, ’tis a great feeling to clear up the rubbish seen fluttering in hedgerows, scattered hither and thither on beaches and stuffed into bushes.

“Is it the foreigners, do you think?”, asked one chap, who saw me picking up litter on the East Hills. No, it’s not the foreigners, it’s just some humans who, at that point in their lives, can’t be bothered – and luckily, it’s still a minority. Imagine how it is in other places around the world.

The people who anger me the most are those who put their dog shit in a bag and then leave both the bag and the shit by the path or on the beach, as if to say: ‘that was simply too exhausting, someone else will have to carry it to the bin”.

And the foxes are thinking: ‘Take-away again’.

Anyway, join in one of the local beach cleans and then make it a life-habit.

Paring down packaging

Rubbish dump Photo from Dreamstime

Thinking of litter leads to thoughts about excess packaging. I wondered if we could take our own containers to take-out restaurants – and the meal would be a little bit cheaper? Cut down on all the polystyrene and the energy it takes to produce the packaging – and just use our own? I tried this out at a local curry house – the staff were fine about it. Is this an idea that could spread?

And isn’t it about time supermarkets, shops and food outlets came up with more sustainable packaging ideas for less packaging on all the things we buy? Our landfills are rapidly reaching overload. One idea is to leave excess packaging at the till, as a statement.

Ecocide trauma

I wonder if we would be able to sue the government or some official body for the emotional distress and psychological damage caused by their contempt for the environment we share? For committing ecocide?

A whole new area of law, making us do what we should be doing anyway, just by natural instinct and intuition.

Ending on a positive note…
In times of pessimism and doom-and-despair-laden-thinking, always remember the following: in some format or other, life will go on.